Interference on speaker wire - Cause?

AuraEdge · 01-21-2002, 04:53 PM

I sometimes get interference on my speakers. Its only every so often, and sometimes cuts off, and is most prevalent when I first turn them on.

I was just wondering what kind of frequency the wires can pick up. The satillites are attached to the amp with standard speaker wire, and I dont hear it if i detach the wire from the amp side or drom the satillite side.
I got 2.4Ghz phones in other rooms, a 900Mhz phone in another room, and a 900Mhz phone in this room. I also have a cell phone and a 802.11b card in my Laptop which sits in my room, but there hardly ever on.

The interference is a constant high pitched bearly audiable squeal...I have pretty acute hearing and I'm not even sure if the typical person would notice it. It cuts off when i shut off the power to the speakers, and is louder as i turn the volume louder on my speakers.

The last thing I did in my house before I noticed this interference was install the 2.4Ghz phones. Maybe thats it?

Instead of experimenting right away, I was wondering if someone who knows about speakers could tell me what kind of frequencies speaker wire would pick up.

This is with the Klipsch 5.1's

a side note - I bought new speaker wire for my rear speakers from the dollar store (great store for wires n stuff!) because the standard wire wasnt long enuf to mount them on the wall. I dont THINK that the rear speakers have this interference. I cant tell by putting my ear up to it because they were mounted high on the wall. What I did was unplug the fronts, pump the volume and then unplug one rear satillite to see if I heard any change. There was none, which leads me to assume only the front satillites are giving out the sound. I can distinctly hear it when i put my ear up to either front or center channel. Maybe the standard speaker wire that Klipsch gives arent all that great.

01-21-2002, 05:02 PM

Running Windows? Try going into your sound mixer and muting the outputs one by one. That happened to me once. In fact it would get into recordings I made digitially. Found out my MIDI chip on my soundblaster was blown. Muted it and the problem went away. That's more what it sounds like to me than interferance from outside sources. But I'm usually wrong too...

-Whir

AuraEdge · 01-21-2002, 05:19 PM

The interference stays if i unplug the amp from the computer though. So its not the computer. it only dissapears when i disconnect the speaker wire from either the satillite or the amp.

crystaldragon · 01-21-2002, 05:29 PM

It's just a thought, but when I used to do quite a bit of sound system stuff we would occasionally pick up some strange interference noises.
I would first check the polarity on the speakers (all of them) occasionally that can caues some strange interfernce noises. Also check the grounding for the amp / power supply. AC harmonics will sound off through the speakers at different frequences. Unless you are running shielded speaker wire check that none of the speaker wires are running too close to an AC circuit while you are at it. Other than that it could be something not quite right in the amp itself, but thats not too common.

JD

AuraEdge · 01-21-2002, 05:41 PM

ok
I was bad at physics
wanna give examples of grounding and AC Harmonics and all that?
this amp is integrated into the sub, and so is the power supply.

I think the amps fine. Its probably the wire...

OuTpaTienT · 01-21-2002, 05:45 PM

It's just crappy wire. My Klipsch 2.1 had the same problem. I replaced the wire with Monster Cable then they sounded fantastic.

AuraEdge · 01-21-2002, 05:58 PM

It hasnt happened til recently, which is the only reason I thought otherwise. Maybe it is the 2.4Ghz phones combined with the crappy wire.
Thanks alot out. Time to go out to the dollar store with 3 bucks to replace all my front wires.

Graham · 01-21-2002, 06:35 PM

Try getting a ferrite ring and winding the lead from the PC to the am around it once or twice, this is astandard interference suppression technique.

G

Graham · 01-21-2002, 06:39 PM

Radio Shack

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...Fid=900%2D7000

Just an example, you'll need to check the physical size you need.

G

AuraEdge · 01-21-2002, 06:50 PM

Yeha, but even if i unplug the Amp from the PC, it still has the squeal...so the PC has nothing to do with it, nor does the wire from the PC to the amp.